


in a land of ice and snow

by bronzemist



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Spiders, aka Feral is alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28244154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bronzemist/pseuds/bronzemist
Summary: Maul and his brothers are on a snowy planet, hunting for someone with information. Of course, things don't exactly go to plan...
Relationships: Darth Maul & Savage Opress, Feral & Darth Maul, Feral & Darth Maul & Savage Opress, Feral & Savage Opress
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30
Collections: Star Wars Secret Santa 2020





	in a land of ice and snow

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Secret Santa gift for [deadnotsleep1ng](https://deadnotsleep1ng.tumblr.com/), happy holidays <3! I hope you like it!
> 
> Thanks to [the-moons-raes](https://the-moons-raes.tumblr.com/) for being my cheerleader through writing this, and to [Hawk](https://lilhawkeye3.tumblr.com/) for organizing this whole Secret Santa exchange and their beta services!

Snow was falling thick and fast as the ship’s ramp opened, thick enough that the ramp sank several inches into it before shuddering to a halt. Maul scowled and tugged his hood up over his horns.

As he stomped down the ramp, he glared out into the storm, searching for their quarry. The snow was almost blinding in its whiteness. The crashed remains of the human’s ship were still smoking, yet had already been covered by a thick layer of it.

When he reached out with the Force, the only living things he could sense were his brothers, trailing down the ramp behind him.

“He’s not here,” Maul snarled.

“We’ll find him, brother,” Feral said reassuringly. He had a bulky tracking device in his hands. Brushing off the snow, he tapped something into it. Moments later, the device beeped. “There’s something alive in that direction,” he said, pointing out into the blizzard.

Immediately, Maul set out in that direction, only to pause at the sound of Savage clearing his throat. “What?”

“Shouldn’t we wait for the storm to let up?”

“The storms never let up on this Sith-forsaken planet,” Maul informed him dryly. He’d learned that the hard way as a child, dumped here and left to fend for himself until his Master deigned to retrieve him. He’d planned on never coming back, but of course the Force had seen fit to do otherwise.

Maul continued walking, ignoring the look he knew Savage and Feral exchanged behind his back. The only thing that mattered was that they followed him. Just as he’d known they would.

Feral’s tracking device continued beeping steadily as they trekked through the blizzard. Several minutes passed before a dark grey shape rose in the distance – a tall, craggy cliff face, at the base of which there were the ruins of a small town.

There had been mining settlements on this planet, during the days of the old Sith Empire, but the mines had run dry long before the Empire had fallen. The planet had been abandoned soon thereafter, but some of the buildings still remained, carved from stone and ice. Maul had sheltered in one during his last stay on this planet, and he suspected that was where their quarry had decided to hide.

“We’re getting closer,” Feral called, voice half-drowned out by the wind.

“Excellent,” Maul grinned.

He’d had his doubts about Feral at first, when Talzin had returned his sanity and Savage had introduced him to their smaller, slighter brother. But Feral had proven his usefulness, keeping the ship repaired and tracking down contacts and jobs across the holonet. This tracking device was only the latest thing proving that Maul had chosen wisely when he had taken both his brothers from Dathomir with him.

Talzin may have thought he was a blind fool, but he knew what she intended for him. And Maul had no intention of being anyone’s tool ever again.

The wind died down as they entered the ruins, though the snow was still falling heavily. Most of the doorways they passed were completely blocked by snow, but the town continued into the cliff itself.

“How much further?” Maul asked.

“Not too far,” Feral assured him, half-crouched over the tracker. “Inside the cliff.”

The snow was coming down too quickly for there to be any tracks, but at the base of the cliff, two large stone doors had recently been blown off their hinges. When Maul bent down and touched them, soot came off onto his gloves.

“We’re getting close,” said Savage. When Maul looked up, he was staring through the doorway into the cliff, brow furrowed.

“Yes, we are,” he agreed, rising and striding through the doorway.

Going from the snowy white landscape outside to the dark, sheltered interior of the cliff felt like stepping from day into night. Humans would need headlamps or torches, but Maul and his brothers had no such weakness. Zabraks could see in the dark, and after allowing his eyes to adjust, he could clearly see the doorways carved directly into the rock.

Just as clearly as he could see the footprints in the drifted snow.

“Very close,” Maul said, smiling slowly.

Feral stepped forward, careful not to disturb the footprints. “There’s a lot of passageways,” he said, frowning at the tracker. “And something’s interfering with the signal.”

“This was a mining settlement,” Maul said. Many minerals were known to interfere with signals, but few were able to interfere with the Force. “Do not trouble yourself. We have other ways of finding them.”

The sharp pulse of gratitude from not only Feral but Savage as well was almost embarrassing. Maul huffed, pushing past Feral and reaching out with the Force.

As in most abandoned settlements, there were echoes in the Force there, glimpses of the lives that had been lived in this place long ago. Maul ignored the faint sensations and searched for something stronger – the presence of a living thing.

Abruptly, there was a loud clattering noise.

Maul whirled around, lightsaber igniting, only to find Feral and Savage in the same position, both looking around with blades lit.

“What was that?” He snapped.

“It came from above us,” Savage growled, staring up at the endless rows of thin windows carved out of the rock.

Again, Maul reached out with the Force. It should have been easy; there was almost no life on this planet, except for themselves and their quarry, and yet he found nothing. Brow furrowing, he dug deeper, pulled from the well of rage within himself, and reached further.

A beep from Feral’s tracker threatened his concentration, but Maul ignored it. Then, he sensed a presence, hungry and sharp. And another. And another.

Feral’s tracker began beeping rapidly.

“Maul?”

“How many are there?” He asked, resigned.

“At least a dozen,” Feral said. Maul could feel the heat of him at his back, could hear Savage growling as the hungry presences began to draw closer.

They felt like animals, pack hunters, the sort of creatures Maul’s master had had him evade when he was a child. If their quarry hoped to eliminate them with such beasts, he would be sorely disappointed.

The Force cried out in warning; Maul spun and sliced the creature clean in two. A cacophony of growls and barking began as the corpse dropped to the floor.

It was not a creature Maul had ever seen before, but it resembled a large, fur-covered massif. That was all he had time to notice before the next creature was attacking.

Maul growled and slashed forward with his lightsaber; the creature skittered away and disappeared into one of the crevices in the walls with a furious bark.

Savage snarled with rage, and Maul felt one of those hungry minds vanish in an instant. He stabbed forward and impaled another as Feral separated one’s head from its body.

It still felt strange to fight alongside others. Maul had been raised to fight alone, without anyone to rely upon. Having Savage and Feral at his side, guarding his back –

“BOMB!”

Something bowled into Maul, knocking him clean off his feet and sending his lightsaber flying, blade vanishing in an instant. A heavy weight fell on top of him, pressing him into the ground. Moments later, there was a thunderous boom followed by the pained screeching of the massif-creatures.

“Savage!” Feral was pressed against Maul’s side, pushing at the weight on top of them.

It was Savage, Maul realized. He added his strength to Feral’s and together, they pushed Savage off of them.

“Is he –” Feral gasped, then paused. “No, I can – he is alive?”

“Yes,” Maul answered. Unconscious minds felt different to a Force-sensitive from conscious ones, just as sapient minds felt differently to non-sapient ones. Savage was alive, but unconscious. There was a bloody gash on the back of his head, and the back of his heavy parka was dotted with shards of rock and ice.

Feral let out a relieved sigh.

The cliff entrance they’d just passed through was gone, buried beneath tons of rock and ice. Several of the creatures had been caught in the explosion and collapse, their bodies tangled in among the rubble.

“Where did it come from?” Feral asked, having followed Maul’s gaze.

“I don’t know,” Maul hissed, furious about it.

All those years of training, all the strength and power of the Dark, and he hadn’t sensed a bomb that might’ve killed him. His lightsaber flew into his hand with rather more force than he’d intended.

“I didn’t see it at all,” Feral admitted quietly. “Savage just – pushed me into you.”

Maul flicked his gaze over his brother once more. He’d known Savage to be protective – it was how he’d gotten himself noticed by the Nightsisters and subjected to Talzin’s magics – but he’d thought... Well.

No one had ever tried to protect Maul before.

“Maul?” Feral’s voice was hesitant, but his gaze was steady. “What do we do?”

“Your tracker?”

Feral waved at the pile of rubble, where the sparking remains of the device had fallen. “I threw it at one of those things.”

Maul reached out through the Force, but now he could sense nothing. The creatures that had survived the explosion had fled, and there were no other minds near theirs.

“We need to go deeper.”

“But – Savage –”

Maul grimaced. Savage was big and heavy, but they couldn’t leave him behind. Savage was _his_.

“With the Force, we can move him.”

Feral wrinkled his nose but nodded, gamely moving to Savage’s side and crouching down beside him. Maul copied him, hauling one of Savage’s arms over his shoulders.

Even zabrak strength would not have been enough to move Savage, had Maul and Feral not had the Force at their disposal. Still, it was a difficult task, made more challenging by his utter deadweight and bulk compared to them.

“Was he always this heavy?” Maul hissed as they began moving deeper into the cave.

Feral grunted. “It felt like it. He used to pin me – when we fought.” He snickered a little. “Until I learned how to kick him off.”

Something deep inside of Maul twinged a little. He’d never had sparring partners like that, except at Orsis – he shook his head furiously. Orsis was just one of the many things Maul did not think about.

There was an ominous crack. The Force screamed a warning.

Maul looked down and saw ice splintering beneath his boots.

“Maul?”

“Don’t move,” he hissed.

Feral didn’t move. The ice creaked again.

Maul reached out with the Force and very nearly cursed. They’d left solid ground behind almost the moment they’d moved beyond the doorway. Everything below them felt like ice, mingled with veins of rock.

The mining. The mining had cleared out the minerals, leaving behind only small, weak strands of rock to support the weight of millennia of ice.

“This _planet_ ,” he snarled. They could try to turn around, make for the entrance, but it was blocked by rubble, and turning around would likely send them through the floor.

“Looks like you’re stuck,” a voice tinged with malice said.

Maul and Feral looked up as one and saw their quarry, unpleasantly smirking at them from an opening in the rock face high above.

“Let me help you with that.”

He tossed a thermal detonator.

Snarling with fury, Maul reached out with the Force and grabbed for the man. He gasped and struggled as it pulled him back towards the opening.

Feral grunted as he was suddenly supporting all of Savage’s weight. The ice beneath them let out a sharp crack.

The thermal detonator landed a few feet away.

“Maul!”

He swore and whirled around, releasing his grasp on the human, who disappeared into the rock. Maul flung the thermal detonator in his general direction before grabbing for Savage. It exploded seconds later, knocking Maul and Feral to the ground.

Whether it was their own weights or the explosion, the ice beneath them could no longer bear it. It shattered, sending them plummeting down a steep, slick slope.

Maul dug his feet into it, desperately searching for leverage, all the while clinging to his brothers. But there was no leverage to be found. All he could do was use the Force to cushion them as much as possible.

The slope suddenly levelled out. Maul’s feet scraped against rock as they skidded to a halt.

“Are you alright?” Feral asked, one arm wrapped around Savage’s, peering worriedly at Maul.

“Fine,” Maul snapped, scanning both of his brothers in the Force. Savage was still unconscious but no more injured than he already had been, and Feral was only a bit bruised. “Take care of him.”

Feral nodded, rolling Savage over onto his front and digging through his pockets for the bacta.

Maul, meanwhile, rose to his feet and looked around.

They had landed in a dark cavern. If it weren’t for his night-eyes, Maul would be completely blind. When he felt out with the Force, the area felt more stable, and there were no other minds for as far as he could sense.

The walls of the cavern were a motley mix of slick, smooth ice and craggy rock. There were only two openings large enough for a zabrak to pass through—the slope they’d fallen down, and a dark tunnel on the opposite side of the cavern.

“Maul?” Feral asked cautiously. “What are we going to do?”

“Once Savage wakes up, we’re leaving,” Maul replied shortly. “I’m finished with this Force-accursed planet.” The human was more trouble than he was worth, and with his ship destroyed, he would perish here eventually, with or without the assistance of Maul’s lightsaber.

“It shouldn’t be long,” Feral offered quietly. “Savage has a hard head.”

Maul huffed. Hard-headed wasn’t a poor descriptor of his brother, he considered.

Patience had never been a virtue of Maul’s, but lately it was one he was being forced to cultivate. If he was to build himself an empire to rival that of his master’s, he would need patience to rival Sidious’ as well. Sitting here in this cavern, waiting for Savage to wake, was as good a chance as any to practice.

Savage groaned and shifted on the floor, hand rising to his head. “What happened?”

“You protected us from the bomb,” Feral said before Maul could open his mouth. “Thank you, brother.”

Savage huffed, embarrassed, but allowed Feral’s quick, affectionate embrace. Maul watched, strange emotions curling in his gut, before clearing his throat.

“We should move on.”

“Of course, brother,” said Savage, standing slowly. He winced as he did so, but nodded at Maul’s look.

The tunnel gently sloped upwards as they entered it, a reassuring sign. Maul kept half of his attention on his brothers at his back, while the other he kept on the ice and stone around them. He would not be caught off guard by anything else today.

But the tunnel was unremarkable. It wound through the ice and rock, short enough in a few places that Maul needed to stoop to pass through, but the Force never cried out in warning. There were no attacks from massif-creatures, or sudden explosions.

“This is too easy,” Savage grumbled.

“You’re too suspicious,” Feral retorted.

Maul, however, was inclined to agree with Savage. Things never went so well for him, especially not on this planet.

Still, they were steadily going up, and soon they entered a large, open cavern. The ceiling, high above their heads, was almost translucent, and glowed as though lit from above. The floor was covered in a light, soft layer of snow, as though this place had once been open to the sky.

“We’re close to the surface,” said Maul, stepping deeper into the cavern. The ground was dotted with stalagmites and crystals, along with strange, bulbous little rock formations. A bubbling noise led him to a hot spring.

“I didn’t think anything on this planet could be warm,” said Feral, peeling off his glove and dipping his fingertips into the water. Savage trailed after him.

Something didn’t feel right. Maul looked around, eyes narrowing in on the strange, bulbous little rock formations. Slowly, he walked over to one and prodded it with his foot.

It wasn’t stone – it was soft, a strange membrane. It splintered beneath the metal, revealing its orange-tinted innards and the body of a small spider.

Dread shot up Maul’s spine as he looked around, taking in the hundreds of bulbs – no, eggs – scattered throughout the cavern.

“We need to leave.”

“What?”

The Force shuddered, and Maul began retreating back towards the hot spring. “We’re leaving. Now.” Things _had_ been going too well, he thought sourly.

As though alerted by some unseen power, all of the eggs began twitching and shifting, membranes splintering. A strange skittering noise echoed through the cavern, and Feral’s face blanched.

As one, Maul and Savage drew their lightsabers.

The eggs began to hatch, tiny cave spiders climbing out. At the same time, more, larger spiders began scrambling into the cavern from one of the tunnels, all of them charging directly for Maul and his brothers.

The ground began to shake beneath his feet, and the Force screamed a warning as a massive spider the size of their ship burst out of the tunnel. Its huge dark eye narrowed in on them at once before letting out a bloodcurdling shriek.

"Maul?!"

"I hate this planet," Maul snarled, “kill them!”

The giant spider shrieked again, charging straight towards them and crashing through a tall stalagmite on its way. Maul dove out of the way, turning around and slashing his lightsaber clean through one of the creature’s legs. It screamed and swung around, swaying unsteadily.

Savage and Feral were preoccupied with the other spiders, but Maul felt no fear. He’d been slaughtering creatures far more dangerous than this when he was still a child.

He sliced through several of the smaller spiders before dodging out of the way of the giant’s leg. It screeched at him furiously, but was too unwieldy to dodge his lightsaber’s blow.

Now two legs down, the spider was off-balance, but still dangerous. Maul circled it cautiously, spinning his lightsaber to destroy the smaller spiders that swarmed towards him.

It tried to rush him, spraying a jet of web that Maul shoved aside with the Force. He spun beneath it and prepared to take its head when -

His legs seized, and Maul hit the ground hard, lightsaber sliding away across the floor.

“No!” He swore, shoving up with the Force to send the giant skidding past him. He pounded furiously at his legs, but the cybernetic limbs refused to respond.

The cold, he realized, rage boiling up inside of him. The cold had frozen the fluid inside the cybernetics, and now he was paralyzed, as helpless as he had been after Kenobi had taken his legs in the first place -

The rage was power, ready for the taking. Maul seized it, reached for the ceiling of the cavern and shattered it, lethal-sharp shards of ice suspending in mid-air. He twisted and drove them all through the giant spider, ending its life in an instant.

The few remaining spiders in the cavern met an equally quick end at the hands of Savage and Feral, who immediately rushed across the cavern to Maul’s side.

“What happened?” Savage asked, glancing between Maul and the ceiling.

“These Sith-forsaken cheap cybernetics,” Maul snarled.

Feral dropped to his knees and began poking at them. “They’ve frozen?” He asked, expression a strange mix of wariness and awe.

Maul didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. Feral was a capable enough mechanic to figure out the problem all on his own.

“Well, the hot spring should warm them up,” he said cautiously.

Maul looked across the cavern to the hot spring, untouched by the carnage. He growled but acquiesced.

“Fine.”

Savage and Feral hauled him up and carried him to the spring. It was – if they were anyone other than his brothers, he would never – he was _not_ helpless. He was a Sith, a powerful Force-user, and soon he would have his revenge against Kenobi and the Jedi and his Master.

Snow was falling through the hole in the ceiling Maul had created. After his brothers had settled him into the hot spring, Feral looked up at it.

“I’m going to go see where that leads,” he said.

“Feral,” Savage began, visibly about to protest.

“I won’t go far,” Feral promised, before darting away, scrambling up the pile of rubble to disappear through the gap. Savage huffed and sat down on the snowy ground beside the hot spring.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Maul hissed at him. The warm water did feel rather nice, though...

“Who said I’m babysitting you?” Savage asked wryly. “It’s warmer here.”

He was bad at hiding his concern, but Maul would allow the excuse to rest. It was only fair, he reminded himself. He and Feral had babysat Savage until he woke up. Savage was just returning the favour.

“That was the Dark Side?”

“What?” Maul turned, nonplussed, only to see Savage staring at the impaled spider. “Yes.”

“I’ve never done anything like that,” said Savage.

Maul’s eyes caught on the blood and bacta still stuck to the back of Savage’s head and trailing down his parka. “I’ve had decades more training than you,” he said bluntly. And decades more anger, he thought but didn’t say.

For all of Savage’s hatred of the Nightsisters, of Ventress and Dooku, Maul would be surprised if he ever felt as much rage as himself.

Savage had Feral, had had brothers and friends and moments of happiness among all of the misery of Dathomir. Maul had had nothing except the pain and the rage. It had made him stronger, but sometimes...

“How are your legs?” Savage asked.

Maul tested them. The cybernetics were sluggish and slow to respond, but they did move, scraping along the bottom of the spring.

“Improving,” he replied.

“Good,” said Savage. “We’ll get you better replacements, brother.” He brushed his hand over Maul’s shoulder, the sort of reassuring gesture he’d give to Feral. It made something warm and soft twist in Maul’s gut.

Probably just heat from the hot spring, he told himself.

“Everything alright?” Feral asked cheerily, leaning down through the gap. “We’re not far from the ship!”

“We’re fine, Feral,” Savage called back.

“Maul?”

“Fine!” Maul snapped.

Feral disappeared again.

“Feral fusses,” Savage said after a moment, carefully not making eye contact.

“What?”

“He fusses,” Savage repeated, “all the time. He used to – after the Nightsisters –” he cut himself off with a growl. The burst of anger swept over Maul like a wave.

“He used to try and distract me,” Savage said after a moment, “told me foolish little stories, children’s tales. He hated seeing me hurt.”

That warm, soft feeling was back, but Maul ruthlessly ignored it. He moved his legs again, and when they moved with only a half-second’s delay, he stood.

“Let’s get back to the ship,” he said, stepping out of the hot spring. Steam rose off his legs as he brushed past Savage. “I grow tired of this planet.”

Savage sighed and followed after him.

If Feral was surprised to see them so soon, he gave no indication of it. The snow was still falling thick and fast, but he pointed off to the east.

“The ship’s ping came back from over there,” he said. “Are we leaving?”

“Yes,” Maul said shortly, stomping through the snowdrifts. The sooner they got off of this planet, the better.

The snow and winds were just as bad as they had been hours ago, when they’d first arrived. If their quarry was hoping to survive on this planet, waiting for someone to rescue him, he’d better hope they got there soon.

There was ice beginning to form in Maul’s parka by the time the dark shape of the human’s crashed ship became visible through the blizzard.

“I’m sorry we didn’t catch him, brother,” Feral said as they trudged their way past it back to their own ship.

Maul huffed.

“Do not trouble yourself about it.” The man was insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Maul had his brothers, and together, they would never be powerless again.

Suddenly, Savage stopped dead.

“Someone’s at the ship.”

The engines were humming, and there was light emanating from the open hatchway. Maul exchanged a look with his brothers and slowly approached the ramp.

Inside the cargo hold, their quarry was humming to himself as he rifled through the storage lockers. His smug satisfaction was bleeding out into the Force all around him.

Maul stepped heavily onto the ramp.

The human’s head shot up and his Force-presence grew sickly with fear.

Maul smiled.

“The Force provides.”

**Author's Note:**

> zabraks having night-eyes is inspired by [blackkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat)'s amazing fics.
> 
> happy holidays to everyone!


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